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Still No Finches

 The lack of finches in the garden is disturbing. I am seeing blue tits and great tits coming to the feeders for sunflower seeds but the boards of goldfinches seem to have vanished.. In the front garden we now have a pair of robins which come to a small hanging table which gets a mix of fat pellets, dried mealworms and pinhead oatmeal. This mix also attracts wood pigeons and blackbirds although the latter seem to prefer the fallen quinces.

Over the bank holiday I was staying in Romford, where I was brought up. On a visit to Bedfords Park I came across two species that would have been unheard of when I was brought up there. There was a flock of parakeets in the woods at the north end of the park while a pair of buzzards were circling between the park and Havering-atte-Bower.

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